The caption for the first photo is only “British anti-tank gun under fire”. It is from “World War II A Complete Photographic History” Hal Buell editor.
For the second photo the caption reads “A ‘loader’ inserting a round”. The source is the book “Breaking the Panzers The Bloody Battle for Rauray Normandy, 1 July 1944” by Kevin Baverstock. This book deals with the role of the 1st Tyneside Scottish, The Black Watch (RHR) during the battle of Rauray. It has a lot of detail concerning the 1st TS’s anti-tank platoon and its use of APDS ammunition. The platoon KO’ed ten German tanks during this engagement, with No. 3 detachment accounting for five.
The number of German tanks KOed should have being higher, however, because of the total lack of training or instruction on the new ammunition, the gunners often missed their targets.
From page 126-127:
“The 6-pounder had plenty of ammunition near it, and so I loaded one of the recently issued Super Velocity Discarding Sabot rounds into the breach and passed on the corporal's fire order which was, I believe: 'Enemy tank, 12 o'clock, range 400, fire!'. If my memory as regards the range is faulty, it is not respecting the rest of the order. We fired this round, which obviously missed its target as the tank began firing its machine gun or guns at us, the bullets passing all round us and rattling against the gun shield. I now realise why we missed and carried on missing our target, as we set a range on the gun's range scale which should not have been done with this Sabot ammunition. Indeed, when the 1st Tyneside Scottish anti-tank platoon was given its first issue of the Sabot rounds in early June 1944, we were not instructed, as we should have been, to fire them with our range scales at 'T, i.e. no range, and I think the same must have happened with the 6th KOSB, thus the corporal should have ordered us to set the range at 'T'.
“LtB.T.W. Stewart, 2nd i/c, Anti-tank Platoon, 'S' Company, 1st TS:
The 'miracle' Sabot rounds were much, much faster in flight, and the tungsten 'dart' which emerged was able to penetrate much thicker armour. However, the extra velocity seriously affected our range finding and the need to lay off for speed. The new ammunition had a different trajectory, which is of course self-evident - flatter trajectory with a greater speed - but we were not told this when the Sabot ammunition was first issued and there were no instructions to accompany it. We simply knew that it was more effective, which it proved to be, but we should have taken note of the effects of vastly increased velocity in the art of the aimer. It was unfortunate that we had no opportunity before we left the UK to practice with this new, highly effective ammunition or there would have been more damage done to the enemy.”
The third photo is a capture from a film clip on a DVD. If the film clip was shown in its proper context then it was shot during the battles near Monte Casino in Italy in the spring of 1944.
Clive, I have your book. I picked it up at the CWM last summer. On page 4 it states;
“Mark IV - a longer barrel with a bore length of 112.2 inches (50 calibres). This increased the muzzle velocity, and a muzzle brake had to be fitted to reduce the stress on the towed carriage. Barrels manufactured in Canada were designated "C" Mark IV;”
So the muzzle brake was only added because of the longer barrel, and not because of a change to the size of the propellant charge.
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